Some rural hospitals are fighting Medicare Advantage; more than half of Kentuckians on Medicare have the private plans

Medicare Advantage plans may offer more benefits but also
have rules that can limit patients' choices. (Anthem website)

A hospital system in central Oregon has "threatened to cut ties with all Medicare Advantage plans next year, a move that would leave an estimated 26,000 local beneficiaries without access to a hospital less than 100 miles away," Nona Tepper reports for Modern Healthcare.

St. Charles Health System CEO Steve Gordon said last month that Meedicare Advantage, "a program intended to promote seamless and higher quality care, has instead become a fragmented patchwork of administrative delays, denials and frustrations." More than half of Kentuckians on Medicare have private Medicare Advantage plans.

Tepper reports, "Health systems nationwide appear to share Gordon's consternation, especially those similarly located in rural areas. Rural health-care providers tend to be disproportionately affected by factors such as reimbursement cuts or denied and delayed payments from Medicare Advantage plans because Medicare enrollees make up most of their patient populations. Cutting off Medicare Advantage plans, or at least declaring that to be a possibility, is a response to the growing market power these carriers have, especially over rural providers."

Tepper notes, "Rural Medicare Advantage enrollment is growing faster than overall enrollment: Since 2010, the share of rural beneficiaries who choose private plans over the traditional program has more than quadrupled, to 40% from 11%, according to Kaiser Family Foundation survey results published this month.

"Among the 58 publicly known contract disputes between insurers and providers this year, 35—more than half—involved Medicare Advantage carriers, according to data compiled by FTI Consulting.  Most conflicts center on how health insurance companies do business more than on reimbursements, said FTI Consulting Managing Director Adam Broder."

Tepper adds: "At Aspirus Health, some Medicare Advantage insurers deny as many as 35% of claims, said Matthew Heywood, CEO of the Wausau, Wisconsin-based nonprofit health system. In response, the 17-hospital chain is renegotiating contracts to include provisions regarding prior authorizations and claims processing times, he said."